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Shlomo Ben-Ami maintains that religion no longer plays a dominant role in the Middle East. Instead strategic – sometimes unholy – alliances and security interests are shaping geopolitics in the region. For centuries the sectarian strife divides Shia and Sunni Muslims, the two sides of Islam, pitting Saudi Arabia against the Shia-majority Iran. The American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 started a new upheaval in Islam's Sunni/Shia divide.This rivalry is the oldest religious conflict in the Middle East. Just like the schism in Christianity between Protestants and Catholics, it is as much about power and identity as religion. The fault-line runs from Lebanon on the Mediterranean, down through Syria and Iraq, to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and beyond. Autocrats in the region have tried to use sectarian divide as a tool to defend their legitimacy and cement their grip on power, just as European leaders still sometimes use nationalism to garner popular support. The Arab uprising in 2011 opened the Pandora’s box of sectarian violence. The civil war in Syria began as a longstanding local conflict between the Sunni majority population and Alawites, who are from the same Shia sect as Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militia sent forces to fight for the Assad regime. Sunni extremist groups, affiliated with Al Qaeda, dominated the armed opposition that sought to oust Assad. As the war intensified and civilians brutalised, it became multi-layered, involving both regional and global players. Putin’s intervention in September 2013 turned out to be a game changer. Backed by Russian airpower, the Iran-led militia groups had been able to help Assad regain lost territories. As Iran grew more assertive, Israel and Saudi Arabia feared Tehran’s influence in Syria and the wider region. The two former antagonists don’t have diplomatic relations, but in June 2015 they revealed at an event in Washington that they had been covertly conducting diplomacy to discuss Iran over a series of five meetings since 2014. For the sake of opposing Iran, Riyadh was ready to betray the Palestinians and turned a blind eye to Trump recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.The author points out that “alliances no longer fit within Sunni-Shia borders.” The new strategic game in the Middle East is an evidence that “the primacy of politics, rather than religion” is the source of the conflicts there. As religion plays a vital role in every aspect of the Muslims’ lives, it has been hijacked for nefarious purposes, especially when autocrats seek to distract people from their grievances. Hamas, the Sunni fundamentalist group that rules the Gaza Strip, posing a threat to Israel, “has survived largely as a result of financing from Iran.” The Sultanate of Oman, ruled by Ibhadis and Sunnis, “has a closer relationship with Iran, with which it shares control of the vital oil-shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, than it does with Saudi Arabia.” Oman is now “being accused of helping Iran to smuggle weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, where Iran and Saudi Arabia are fighting a proxy war.” Qatar is paying a high price for its relationship with Iran, “with which it shares colossal gas fields, that is too close for Saudi Arabia’s comfort.” The standoff a year ago initiated by the Saudis to punish Doha by isolating the tiny Gulf state diplomatically and imposing sanctions made international headlines, because Trump openly accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism. But Qatar refused to succumb to the Saudi demands, including the shutting down of its network, Al Jazeera. Sunni autocrats in the region resent the station’s broad reach. It had been critical of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, while sympathetic towards the Muslim Brotherhood and supportive of the pro-democracy movement during the Arab Spring. The author points out a perfect example for how Iraq has chosen “politics over religion.” Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery Shia cleric who in the past “led deadly attacks against US troops, is now emerging as America’s best hope of containing Iran’s expanding influence in Iraq.” He even reached out to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that seek to weaken Iran. While people in the Middle East steer politics away from religion, Israel’s religious-nationalist coalition “has sold its soul to Christian anti-Semites: American evangelists.” These ultra-right settlers seek to secure their “grip on the occupied territories,” and they have the evangelists’ support. Trump relies on these fanatics at home to justify his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s new capital, and to form his corebase. The author says, “Natanyahu’s alliance with this group – ardent supporters of the colonization of Judea and Samaria – is an affront to both the overwhelmingly liberal Jewish-American community and the powerful rabbinical establishment in Israel.”

Thanks for including more of the roots of the Shia/Sunni divide, ramifications. It is such a complex political quagmire. Then with the suppression of women politically and religiously, especially now by religious zealots in the US, it sure is going to increasingly become even worse. The division of Church and State was a fundamental premise of the US. The US political leadership has destroyed this principle themselves for the nation as a whole. Only China has that principle today within their national premise. China will overtake the other nations, strategically, and politically because of the basic adherence to that principle.